Sponsor-event congruence effects: The moderating role of sport involvement and mediating role of sponsor attitudes

The authors examine the moderating effect of sport involvement in the association between sponsor-event congruence and consumer responses. University students (N = 118) took part in the experiment. The partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) results show that sport involvement moderates the effectiveness of sponsor-event congruence on sponsor credibility, influencing attitude toward the sponsor and intention to purchase the sponsor’s product. Research findings imply that a sponsorship campaign, in which sponsor-event congruence occurs, may have the power to deliver a product relevant message to consumers who are involved in sports via a central route.     

Sponsors’ CSR strategies in sport: A sensemaking approach of corporations established in France

This paper explores the perceptions and strategies of corporate sponsors established in France and involved in sport-related corporate social responsibility (S-CSR). Based on the theoretical framework of strategic sensemaking, interviews were conducted with sponsorship managers from 23 corporations involved in S-CSR partnerships with various sports properties. Each phase of the strategic sensemaking process was analyzed, resulting in the identification of three levels of ambiguity in the interpretative process: namely, perceived links between sports properties and CSR, links between S-CSR and sponsors’ own CSR, and links between S-CSR actions and the main sponsorship objectives. We described and gave evidence for seven strategies, highlighting the diversity of S-CSR rationales among sponsors. Other factors were found to influence the sensemaking process, namely sponsorship managers’ knowledge of their company's own CSR, collaboration between sponsorship and CSR departments, and the role of sports properties as sensegivers in S-CSR actions. Finally, we summarize our results in a process model of S-CSR strategic sensemaking in order to provide both sponsors and sports properties with a better understanding of the multiple possibilities for CSR leverage.     

体育赞助营销对品牌资产的潜在影响因素研究

体育赞助营销是体育产业的重要组成部分,不仅为体育的发展提供了物质基础,而且使赞助的品牌走向世界,深入千家万户的有效平台和桥梁。体育赞助营销是建立品牌资产的最有效途径之一,体育赞助营销对品牌资产的潜在影响主要表现为体育赞助动机、体育赞助传播度、体育赞助活力影响力、被赞助活动的偏好等方面。     

Legal battles for sponsorship exclusivity: The cases of the World Cup and NASCAR

Theorists have emphasized brand differentiation in achieving a competitive advantage through sponsorship, and managers of sports sponsorships have recognized product category exclusivity as among the most valued rights afforded sponsoring firms. Yet the proliferation of sponsorships in the sports marketplace poses a challenge to sponsors attempting to establish a unique brand position apart from the clutter. The competition between corporate rivals for sponsorship exclusivity in the world's highest profile sporting arenas has begun to spill into the courtroom. The purpose of this paper is to review the cases of MasterCard versus FIFA, and AT&T versus NASCAR, and discuss the relevance of these contract disputes to sponsorship scholars and practitioners. Specifically, the courts’ finding of irreparable harm faced by the excluded sponsor offers an intriguing legal recognition of the theorized goodwill and inimitability of corporate affiliation with a specific sponsored enterprise. The cases also contribute an opposing view of best practices, where legal ramifications arise from treating sponsorship as a property-based resource and neglecting the relational dimensions of collaborative communication, trust, and commitment emphasized by contemporary sponsorship theory.     

体育赞助的体系

论述构成体育赞助体系的四个子系统--赞助方、被赞助方、中介方和传媒方以及构成体育赞助流程的四个阶段--总体策划、个案营销、个案组织和实施与个案评估的特征、作用和相互关系.     

Old and exciting? Sport sponsorship effects on brand age and brand personality

Brand managers often use sport sponsorship to position a brand in terms of human-like personality traits (e.g., exciting or sophisticated) and demographic characteristics (e.g., young or masculine). Yet, little is known why, how, and under which conditions such associations transfer from a sport property to a sponsor brand. The present study introduces spontaneous trait transference as a mechanism and explicates that its properties can account for such associative transfer effects in typical sport sponsorship contexts with unintentional exposure and limited control. Two experiments show that, consistent with spontaneous trait transference predictions, (a) sport sponsorship transfers only the sponsored sports’ focal traits (but no general evaluative halo) to the sponsors, (b) spontaneous trait transfer occurs for both sport personality and age traits largely independent from each other, and (c) transfer effects occur for unfamiliar brands, but also (to a lesser extent) for familiar brands. Practical implications of these findings for the selection of sponsorship properties, the design of sponsorship communication, and for targeting specific consumer segments with appropriate sponsorships are discussed.     

Quantifying the effect of sponsor awareness and image on the sports involvement–purchase intention relationship

Despite the exponential growth of corporate expenditure on sponsorship, to date there has been little exploration of the degree to which sports involvement influences purchase intention of sponsor products and how much of this effect can actually be ascribed to an indirect effect through sponsor image and sponsor awareness. Using a multiple mediation model, this research explored the mediational role of sponsor awareness and sponsor image in the sports involvement–purchase intention relationship. Results revealed that while sponsor image is an effective mediator of the sports involvement and purchase intention relationship, sponsor awareness acts as a suppressor. Moreover, per the ratio of indirect effect to total effect, sponsor image accounts for 90% of the total effect of sports involvement on purchase intention. These findings should assist sponsors and sport event managers to capitalize on sponsorship opportunities more effectively.     

Governing the (un)healthy child-consumer in the age of the childhood obesity crisis

In recent years, multinational food and drink corporations and their marketing practices have been blamed for the global childhood obesity ‘crisis’. Unsurprisingly, these corporations have been quick to refute these claims and now position themselves as ‘part of the solution’ to childhood obesity. In this paper, I examine how and why corporations fund, devise and/or implement ‘healthy lifestyles education’ programmes in schools. By using a critical ethnographic research approach alongside Foucault’s notion of governmentality, I interrogate what those with the ‘will to govern’ (such as corporations) wanted to happen (e.g. fight obesity, change marketing practices and increase consumption), but also what actually happened when these corporatised education programmes met their intended targets in three New Zealand primary schools. I critically examine these programmes by focusing on the ways in which three technologies of consumption – product placement, transforming children into marketers and sponsorship – attempt to govern children to be lifelong consumers of the corporate brand image and their allegedly ‘healthy’ corporate products. Although students were not necessarily naïve and easily coerced into becoming mindless consumers of corporate products, students and their teachers readily accepted that sponsorship, product placement and marketing in schools were normal, natural, necessary and mostly harmless. Healthy lifestyles education programmes represent a new ‘brand’ of health, health education and corporation. The child-citizen is governed to become the child-consumer. Corporations’ anxieties about being blamed for childhood obesity are fused with technologies of ‘healthy consumption’: the consumption of corporate products, corporate philanthropy, the corporate brand and corporate ‘education’.     

Leveraging sponsorship: The activation ratio

The accelerated growth of sponsorship has brought increased attention and scrutiny to this relatively new area of marketing and communications strategy. In turn, researchers have focused on defining, understanding and measuring the various aspects of sponsorship. However, detailed research related to the ‘how’ of sponsorship implementation remains limited. A key aspect of implementation is known as activation, which refers to the investment by the sponsor above and beyond the fee required to acquire the official rights to that sponsorship. Activation is normally referred to as a ratio of the additional investment to the cost of the rights fees. Previous studies have offered recommended activation ratios ranging from 1:1 to as high as 8:1 in order to fully reap the rewards of sponsorship. This research seeks to enhance our understanding of sponsorship activation via an in-depth case study, a typical method for exploratory research of this nature. Specifically, we ask (i) what drives activation, (ii) what are the best methods of activation, and (iii) how much should be spent on activation? Findings suggest that management decisions regarding activation focus on the custom development of quality strategies versus increasing the activation ratio. Indeed, a formula based on a variety of factors is recommended since activation tactics and their appropriateness to a specific sponsorship are the cornerstones of sponsorship success. Overall, results present a four-step model including activation drivers, strategic considerations, activation spending, and sponsorship outcomes.     

对我国职业排球俱乐部现状的调查及发展对策研究

通过对我国24支职业排球俱乐部的调查研究，发现目前我国职业排球俱乐部的组建及管理形式比较落后，不够完善；内部组织结构不够健全，职业化意识不强；资金来源单一，除上级拨款外。主要从广告赞助中获得资金，缺乏经营渠道。就这些问题，提出完善俱乐部组织形式，由目前的赞助型向股份制和企业独资型转变；明晰产权关系，健全管理体制，建立完善的内部组织结构；加快实现俱乐部管理人员职业化；培育排球市场，同新闻媒体增加沟通，开发新闻媒体的巨大潜在功能；提高运动员的运动技术水平，增强比赛的观赏性。     

Alcohol sponsorship and its impact on sports participants’ consumption

The aim of this study was to examine the association between alcohol consumption, alcohol sponsorship in sports and preferences of sponsored sportspeople regarding sponsorships/consumption. We investigate the impact of alcohol sponsorship on sportspeople in the Australian population using a national survey of sportspeople (N?=?2367), representing a range of club and professional sports. The results show an association between alcohol sponsorship of sport and increased alcohol consumption among sports participants (i.e. ‘sportspeople’). Additionally, a preference for sponsored alcohol brands was found by sponsored sportspeople. Our research adds to the growing evidence for policy review of alcohol sponsorship of sports and extends prior studies investigating impacts of alcohol sponsorship upon sports participants by generalizing to a large, national sample of sportspeople.     

体育赞助对赛事品牌资产的影响——基于品牌形象逆转移的视角

主要采用调查法，以品牌形象转移理论为基础，从品牌形象逆转移的视角，实证研究了赞助企业品牌资产对体育赛事品牌资产的影响，以及赛事熟悉度与赞助匹配的调节作用。结果显示：首先，赞助企业品牌资产对赛事品牌资产存在显著正向影响，具体而言，赞助企业品牌的感知质量、品牌忠诚度、品牌意识、品牌联想正向影响赛事品牌资产；其次，赛事熟悉度与赞助匹配仅能调节感知质量、品牌忠诚度和品牌联想对赛事品牌资产的影响，不能调节品牌意识对赛事品牌资产的影响；最后，赞助企业品牌资产在影响赛事品牌资产的过程中会受到赛事熟悉度和赞助匹配的双重调节作用。研究结论证实了在体育赛事赞助活动中出现的品牌形象逆转移现象。     

体育赞助需要活化--以三星赞助曼谷亚运会及悉尼奥运会为例

简要分析了体育赞助的兴起和发展,指出体育赞助效益的最大化取决于赞助活动策略应用。并以三星为例研究其在曼谷亚运会和悉尼奥运会中的活化活动,最后指出体育赞助者应围绕体育赞助效益的4个方面,开展赞助活化才能使体育赞助效益最大化。     

Can alcohol sponsorship be diluted by health messaging?

Concerns surround the association between alcohol advertising and alcohol consumption amongst audiences. Research has examined the link in broadcast sports, yet limited attention is directed towards newer media. This paper examines whether there is a link between alcohol sponsorship in sports games and alcohol brand recall, recognition and choice, and whether in-game health messages moderate this association. Simulated games designed specifically for this study are used to observe whether in-game alcohol sponsorship combined with embedded health messages affect the player’s brand awareness. Findings highlight the influence of in-game alcohol sponsorship placement on brand awareness, yet embedded health messages do not impact consumer behaviours. This research provides evidence suggesting regulations in games may be warranted and further examination of health messaging in sponsor brand placement necessary.     

对CBA职业联赛赞助现状的分析与策略研究

通过文献资料法等对CBA联赛赞助现状进行分析得出,CBA职业联赛的收入主要是赞助商的投入,在融资单一的情况下,各俱乐部以出售冠名权来充实资金。对赞助商的类型以及在保护赞助商的权益上进行了分析,其中赞助商的类型包括：官方合作伙伴、官方赞助商和官方供应商三类,在保护赞助商权益上主要以：赛场广告发布、门票、联赛专用服装装备、联赛指定用品这四种措施实施。最后提出对策：要构建稳定,资金财力大的赞助商群体和赢得国外赞助商的青睐来投入赞助,从而不断推动CBA联赛市场的开发。     

中国羽毛球队商业赞助现状与分析

从赞助对象自身的权益出发,研究赞助对于赞助对象的意义,为中国羽毛球队今后寻求赞助提供一定的借鉴和帮助,并为商业赞助分析理论做一个探讨补充,为实现赞助商和赞助对象的双赢做一个分析研究。     

Sporting shades of green: a comparative analysis of sponsored national mythmaking in Irish rugby and soccer

This paper derives from an ongoing study of how modern sports contribute to the (re)definition of national identities in the context of increasing marketization and mediatization of sport at different levels. In this paper, we examine the symbolic tensions surrounding Three Ireland’s concurrent sponsorship of the Irish international football and rugby union teams via an analysis of two television commercials commissioned by the sponsor. We suggest that although different signifiers of Irish identity are employed in the football and rugby commercials examined – and that each ostensibly represents a different ‘version’ of Irish identity – both campaigns draw largely from a common fund of cultural authenticity. Our analysis suggests that Three Ireland has constructed broad texts that comfortably accommodate differing signifiers of Irish identity and that permit the sponsor to trade in limited and controllable degrees of cultural difference. More broadly, our paper demonstrates how national identity can function as a ‘multi-directional symbol’.     

The changing of the sponsorship market

Since the time of state socialism, Hungarian sport has been totally financed by the state. Therefore, Hungarian soccer and sponsorship market is a relatively new and unexplored subject of research in the field of sports sponsorship, as most studies so far have focused on the major European soccer leagues. The main objective of this paper, focusing on the Hungarian soccer sponsorship market, was to evaluate the range of soccer sponsorship objectives and the range of evaluation tools that sponsors use to measure the effectiveness of their sponsorships. A combined approach of qualitative and quantitative research methods served as the methodological foundation of this study. In the quantitative phase, representatives of the sponsor companies (n=103) were asked to rate the importance of the sponsorship objectives and the importance of the evaluation techniques used to measure the effectiveness of their sponsorships. The results of this study have implications for the sports sponsorship industry, the Hungarian soccer club sponsors, and the sport properties too. According to the research results, many of the Hungarian sponsor companies have failed to assess the effectiveness of sponsorship in meeting their objectives. The research can be used to bridge the gap between the theory and practice of soccer sponsorship in Hungary.     

Gambling on sport sponsorship: A conceptual framework for research and regulatory review

Commercial gambling providers (CGPs) have recently intensified the promotion of their products and services through sport sponsorship. Consequently, gambling products and services now gain substantial exposure to large audiences via media broadcasts of sport. Due to the mainstream appeal of some sports, television audiences and fan-bases can include youth, at-risk and problem gamblers, who may be prompted to gamble, or to increase their gambling, by the direct marketing, alignment of gambling with a ‘healthy’ activity and increased normalisation of gambling. Therefore, sport sponsorship by CGPs promotes a potentially risky behaviour and may exacerbate the public health issue of problem gambling. Regulatory measures have been implemented by governments and private organisations in relation to sport sponsorship by tobacco companies in recognition of the potential harmful impacts of this form of marketing. Subsequently, the involvement of ‘unhealthy products’ including alcohol, junk food and gambling in sport sponsorship has been publicly questioned. This may lead to further regulatory changes that would directly affect the management of sport organisations. Few studies have examined these issues and there is little knowledge of the impacts that sport sponsorship arrangements have on society. Research is needed to inform prudent decision-making about the appropriate regulation of sport sponsorship. This paper reviews the current gambling sport sponsorship landscape and proposes a conceptual framework aimed at facilitating a systematic, interdisciplinary research agenda for examining corporate social responsibility issues pertinent to the sponsorship of sport by CGPs.     

体育赛事赞助匹配量表编制与信效度分析

主要采用文献资料法、访谈法等,在获得消费者对体育赛事赞助匹配感知资料的基础上,编制体育赛事赞助匹配量表,并依据项目反映理论,对量表进行项区分度分析。同时采用探索性因子分析和验证性因素分析以检验量表的结构效度,并检测量表组合信度。